C-REITs and infrastructure financialization in China: A conjunctural analysis of state capitalism and state entrepreneurialism

China’s publicly listed infrastructure REITs (C-REITs), launched in 2021, represent an important innovation in infrastructure finance and capital market reform. Their emergence raises important questions about the changing relationship between the state, market creation, and infrastructure financialization in China. Existing studies have variously interpreted C-REITs as an extension of state capitalism, an expression of state entrepreneurialism, or evidence of growing financialization. However, these perspectives are often treated separately and provide only a partial explanation of the development of the C-REIT market. This paper examines how state capitalism, state entrepreneurialism, and infrastructure financialization are articulated together in the development of China’s REIT market. Drawing on Peck’s conjunctural approach and the case of the Ping An REIT, it analyses ownership structures and control, market creation, asset securitization, and actor relationships. The findings show that SOEs remain dominant while the state actively creates and shapes the REIT market through institutional innovation. The infrastructure assets are increasingly transformed into tradable financial products through capital markets. The paper argues that C-REITs do not represent a transition from state capitalism to state entrepreneurialism. They constitute a distinctive form of state-led infrastructure financialization in which state ownership, market creation, and financialization are articulated together within an evolving form of party-state capitalism.